CONSIDERATIONS

ON THE

MEANS OF IMPROVING

THE PUBLIC DEFENCE:

IN A LETTER TO

HIS EXCELLENCY

GOVERNOR TRUMBULL.

CONSIDERATIONS, &c.

MY DEAR SIR,

Boston, September 23, 1803.

I CALLED to pay my respects to your Excellency at your lodgings in this town the morning on which you left us, and found that you had even exceeded your usual punctuality, by anticipating the hour which was fixed for your departure. For this disap→ pointment I then hoped to have been indemnified by the satisfaction of a meeting in New-Haven at the public Commencement ;* but my regrets were still to be protracted, as some unforeseen causes prevented me from making my intended journey. Although I now promise myself the gratification of an interview during the next session of your Legislature, yet I have deemed it not amiss to recal myself to your friendly remembrance, in submitting to your judgment a few of my reflections on the best means of conciliating economy and protection, by the organization of an efficient and disposable force.

I know not what author has observed, that from the frequent hostilities between nations, one would almost be tempted to believe, a state of war, rather than peace, is natural to our species. In such a world as ours, it is impossible but that disputes will arise; and where there is no common arbiter to decide, they must often be settled by an appeal to arms. Mankind, in civil society, when under a free government, must be prepared to protect their liberty and property, or expect to lose them. We should not presume upon being exempted from the lot of humanity. Ought we not then to improve the means which heaven has placed in our hands for self-protection? A national force is indispensable. Its constitution and character are of the highest import. In our times, armies are, in a certain sense, machines-their action, reaction, momentum, and effect, subjects of calculation. Sages, ever provident, have spent much time in endeavouring to find the best projects of defence. Savages, untroubled with thought for the morrow, are pushed on to action, promiscuously or separately,

*The Commencement for conferring Degrees at Yale College.

by passion or revenge. Among these tribes of hunters and war riors, little that merits the name of plan can be expected. In polished societies, improved as they now are in the arts of attack and defence, there is no alternative but a standing army or oganized militia. That liberty has often been destroyed by popular leaders at the head of the former, has been too frequently, and fully demonstrated by history to require new proofs or illustrations. A well-constituted force of the latter kind, without endangering the liberty of a country, may be an adequate substitute until the moment of a war shall have arrived. Even after the commencement of hostility, the enthusiasm of such troops will supply the want of habitual discipline in the field, until an army can be formed. But where a good militia does not previously exist, almost insuperable obstacles will be encountered in the advances towards a regular establishment. Nor should an army for the war be too long delayed, as it was in our revolutionary contest. Then our honest, but unexperienced rulers, were so much more alarmed at the very name of a standing army to be raised from their countrymen, than they were at the ravages of the enemy, as to neglect levying soldiers for the war until our cause was reduced to extreme danger. They long thought the country might be protected by militia, serving in rotation, or levies, enrolled on short inlistments; notwithstanding General Washington, in almost the first communication he made to Congress, foretold the fatal consequences which were likely to happen, and endeavoured, by all the means in his power, to avert them.

We know, by experience, the miseries of war, and therefore must have the greater relish for the blessings of peace. But we have not heretofore been left to our option. Hostility was once forced upon us. More recently, England and France sought by turns to involve us in their quarrel. Greater provocations may yet occur. If the respect for General Washington's public and private character, when he possessed the whole confidence of the United States as their President, was hardly sufficient to prevent us from being hurried into a war, may we not rationally dread that any other administration, under similar circumstances, would find a still more difficult task to maintain our neutrality? Having such an extensive navigation so imperfectly protected, and so many delicate points of contact with the present belligerent powers, as to enemy's property and blockaded ports, happy indeed shall we be, if permitted to increase our riches without interruption, amidst the desperate conflicts of rival and enraged nations. Can any thing contribute more to the attainment of this object than for us to assume a dignified attitude of defence; and, in proving

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our decided predilection for peace, to convince those who may dare to provoke us beyond the limits of sufferance, that we are always prepared for war? I hope we shall be so far from seek ing pretexts for hostility, that we shall most sedulously strive to avoid every snare that might entangle us in it. I hope we shall never be reluctant or tardy to engage in a righteous cause, whenever it cannot be avoided but by an infamous dereliction of principle or sacrifice of honour. And, in such a crisis, I trust, by the benediction of heaven, that we shall come forward to meet our enemies with a portion of courage and unanimity which has never been surpassed in the annals of mankind. But God forbid we should ever be so infatuated as to swell the black catalogue of crimes, and augment the hereditary ills of our race, by the wanton effusion of human blood from motives of ambition, conquest, and aggrandisement.

Notwithstanding the vaunted perfectibility of human nature, we cannot conceal from ourselves, that the rage of domination still invents excuses for aggression. Lessons, on invasions of peaceable and distant States, are too distinctly printed in characters of blood, not to be legible. Addressing a person of less historical knowledge and political forecast than your Excellency, I might have adverted to the tremendous events which have lately occurred on the other side of the Atlantic. Without displaying fictitious scenes of distress, to agitate the terrified imagination, I would have said, "let us turn our eyes to the records of Holland, Italy and Switzerland! Shall we there see no awful monitions in the pages, no ghastly figures in the prints? Shall we, struck with judicial blindness, not be able to read, for our own benefit, the book of their destinies? Or rests the day in darkness ere long to dawn on our encrimsoned land, when we too, by want of military spirit and national union, shall become the vile vassals of insiduous and powerful invaders, and be comprehended in the ignominious list of those degraded States which have lost their independent rank among the nations of the earth? No; never shall mortal eye witness that sight. If we will but be faithful to ourselves; if, with one soul, we will add energy to the martial system, and, with millions of hands, cement to the federal fabric, then may we, in defence of our rights, defy a world in arms.'

"

Who can count upon the stable enjoyment of peace, in the convulsed situation of Europe? While the English government is so seriously preparing to repel an invasion which threatens its very existence; while the inhabitants of the British Islands are induced *to make unprecedented sacrifices in time and money for defence; while France presents such a colossial force as appears to overawe